The much-awaited Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) debut for Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the IPL is finally here. The seasoned pacer, who was bought for a whopping fee of Rs 10.75 crore, has replaced Rasikh Salam Dar in RCB’s huge clash against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Chepauk. Bhuvi was expected to start for RCB from the IPL 2025 opener itself, but he was surprisingly benched against KKR.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar makes IPL debut for RCB
An IPL veteran, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, was released by the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) after he spent 11 seasons with them. To solidify their bowling and add much-needed experience, RCB went hard for Bhuvi and snatched him from the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the IPL 2025 auction. With 181 wickets, Bhuvneshwar is the highest-wicket-taking Indian pacer in IPL history.
Bhuvneshwar didn’t play against KKR as he wasn’t fully fit. Rasikh Salam was offered a game but unfortunately had a bad outing, leaking 35 runs in 3 overs. On the eve of the game, RCB’s batting coach Dinesh Karthik said the following about Bhuvneshwar Kumar during the press conference.
“As far as I know, there are no fitness concerns. Yes, Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar) did not play the last game but he bowled and felt good yesterday. So, we will wait on that. Kohli’s back issue is a bit of a chronic one but the beauty about him is that he knows how to play with it. It has not been hampering him in any way.”
RCB Playing XI vs CSK
CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad won the toss and asked RCB to bat first in Chennai. Hence, you would see Devdutt Padikkal batting at number three. In the second innings, he might get replaced possibly with a spinner in Suyash Sharma.
- Virat Kohli
- Phil Salt (wk)
- Devdutt Padikkal
- Rajat Patidar (c)
- Liam Livingstone
- Jitesh Sharma (wk)
- Tim David
- Krunal Pandya
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar
- Yash Dayal
- Josh Hazlewood
- Royal Challengers Bengaluru Impact Subs: Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Dar Salam, Jacob Bethell, Swapnil Singh, Manoj Bhandage
It must be noted that Bhuvneshwar has previously played one game with RCB. That clash came at the Champions League T20 back in 2009.
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